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Thursday, 28 April 2016

Review - 'Arrow', S04E19 - 'Canary Cry'

With the way in which the previous
episode of Arrow ended, there
really wasn't any mystery concerning what plot-thread this latest
episode would be devoted to exploring. The season long question
concerning exactly who it was in that graved had finally been
answered, it seems – and, the answer was Laurel Lance. Of course,
whether you actually felt any of the emotion that this episode
clearly intended on making you feel really came down to how you felt
about this character over the past few seasons.

For my part, at
least, I have always appreciated the effort that the series made to
actually show us something of Laurel's gradual transition from lawyer
to costumed vigilante. I had appreciated the fact that we had been
shown something of her struggles, and early failures – and,
especially, the way in which she had actually had to earn her place
on the team. It wasn't perfect, of course – but, it was definitely
handled better than the few months of off-camera training we had with
Thea.

At the
same time, though, Laurel Lance has also often been an inconsistent
character – and, an occasional source of genuine frustration for
me, as a member of the audience. More often than not, it had felt
like Katie Cassidy was simply doing the best she could with an
inconsistent, and occasionally thankless, role. So, while I certainly
wouldn't say that I'm glad
to see her go, I also can't really say that I feel any of the regret
that I would have felt if, for example, Diggle had been the one to
die.

Still, though, the
tragic death of Laurel Lance was clearly a big event for the series,
as a whole – so, it makes perfect sense that this episode would be
devoted to exploring the fall-out for the rest of the cast.

Oddly enough,
though, the episode actually made the interesting choice of opening
with something of a 'fake-out' – showing us a funeral entirely
different from the one we had been led to expect. Obviously, there
was something of a thematic parallel to Laurel's death, here, and the
death of Tommy Merlyn back at the end of the first season. They were,
after all, two of his closest friends from his old life – and,
their deaths had clearly affected him in much the same way. So,
rather than continue with this season's 'Lian Yu' story-line, the
interesting decision was made to focus this episode's 'flash-back'
sub-plot on the way in which Oliver and Laurel had supported each
other after Tommy's death – a decision which, incidentally, also
allowed Katie Cassidy to appear in this episode, in spite of her
character's death.

It was an
interesting idea, certainly – so, it's really just a shame that
these scenes don't really add much of value to the episode. With the
exception of the opening scene set during Tommy's funeral (which
provided a great moment for Katie Cassidy, as Laurel found herself
delivering his eulogy in Oliver's place), those scenes served no real
purpose other than taking up screen-time – which, considering how
much ground needed to be covered, here, ultimately only hurt the
episode, as a whole.

Along with this
'flash-back' sub-plot, of course, this episode also needed to cover
the 'present day' reaction to Laurel's death – something which,
arguable, was much more important. Taken individually, the other
character's various responses to Laurel's death provided some great
moments – but, unfortunately, when taken together over such a small
space of time, it all began to feel a little overwhelming.

Oliver
and Diggle which, naturally enough, seemed intent on blaming
themselves – with Diggle, in particular, entirely convinced that
his willingness to trust his brother over Oliver led directly to
Laurel's death. This made sense, of course – and, it was a source
of some great moments for both Stephen Amell and David Ramsey (with
Diggle, in particular, having a character-arc, concerning his anger
at himself and his brother, which deserved much more screen-time than
it received, here). But, when it turned out that Felicity also blamed
herself, for some reason, the episode almost seemed to have taken an
odd turn toward self-parody. Having all three of the show's main cast
seemingly trapped in the same cycle of self-blame just started to
seem a little silly – especially when we had multiple scenes
dedicated to one character trying to convince another not to blame
themselves.

By contrast,
though, this was a great episode for Paul Blackthorne (even if,
obviously, the same couldn't be said for the character he plays).
Quentin Lance's own character-arc, throughout this episode, had him
following a painfully real process of denial, and gradual acceptance,
as he found himself forced to accept that he may have lost another
daughter. The idea that he would reach out to Nyssa al-Ghul,
convinced that she can use the Lazarus Pit to bring Laurel back, was
an especially tragic touch.

Unfortunately, the
cumulative effect of all of this taking place over such a short
period of time was an episode which just began to feel increasingly
messy. By the time that a sub-plot concerning the theft of the Black
Canary's costume, and her 'canary cry' device, by a mysterious woman
intent on stealing the vigilante's identity for reasons of her own, it
had started to feel as though there was simply too much going, here.
It was a plot-line which simply felt out of place, in an episode like
this one – a poorly considered attempt, perhaps, to add a little
action to the episode when it probably wasn't truly needed.

Perhaps if all of
this had been spread out over two episodes, it would have made the
impact that the writer's clearly wanted. It's a shame, too, since
this was still an episode that featured some truly great moments –
but, as it is, the episode ultimately just ended up feeling overly
cluttered with too many plot-threads.